HALF a million jobs were created in Northern Ireland in 15 years, according to analysis from the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre (UUEPC).
It says that between 2007 to 2021, a total of 67,628 employer firms were established in the region, with 64 per cent operating in the service sector.
The report points to the most job growth occurring in these younger firms, with the majority of jobs occurring in the first year.
Analysing the gross components of job creation and loss over this period revealed that employer births created a total of 301,000 jobs in their birth year.
Those that survived generated an additional 192,000 jobs, while those that closed removed 114,000 jobs. Those that survived but contracted resulted in a further loss of 125,000 jobs.
UU economists suggest that potential policy interventions should consider both the age and size of firms rather than solely focusing on small firms.
They also report that the timings and consistency of job growth among employer firms showed some stable patterns.
Typically, in those firms that survived up to 10 years, job creation was a rare, one-off event and usually occurred early in the firm's life cycle.
Multiple job creation episodes were linked to larger firms at birth, while smaller firms generally had no job creation episodes during their lifetime.
Dr Karen Bonner, principal economist at UUEPC, said: "Job creation has been a policy lever to help grow the economy but to date we know little about the 'how' of firm job creation in terms of when and how often firms generate employment over their lifetime," she said.
"To this end, this project seeks to understand both the extent of job creation in Northern Ireland since 2007 and the job creation history of businesses."
Dr Bonner said government policy should focus on helping established businesses to create job growth.
"Effective interventions could focus on firms with static job patterns over their lifetime, as they represent the most commonly observed pattern," she said.
"Whether firms survived for three years or 10 years, a significant proportion of them exhibited static job patterns, indicating a lack of significant job creation or loss.
"Programmes supporting job growth could establish entry criteria based on various factors including business characteristics, employment history, and the growth mindset of the owner."
The report uses individual firm-level records to track job creation, job retention and job loss over time and identifies how prevalent job creation is amongst new firms.
